Mechanism Design Failure Modes

An ethresear.ch post argues that a single failure mode recurs across mechanism design: a cheap, gameable subjective proxy (reputation, a mintable degree label, a frozen value, engagement) substitutes for an objective, load-bearing signal. The author examines four instances—consensus conflict resolution, cross-domain state with commingled degrees, governance values encoded as immutable predicates, and attention ranking—and proposes repairs that restore objectivity by construction, such as blind commit-reveal pairwise comparison between conflicting parties and bucketed per-lot individuation. Governance is identified as the boundary case where math can enforce but cannot generate a value floor, while a merit-priced discourse layer is presented as the repair that is buildable today.